Better Elections Are Possible

When you combine single-member districts into bigger multi-member districts, the picture starts to look quite different. The beauty of multi-member districts is that they allow us to use what FairVote calls “fair representation voting.”

...Imagine if Netroots Democrats or Tea Party Republicans made an impact not by launching primary challenges but by setting up shop as separate political entities. Instead of dragging the major parties to the left or to the right, they’d be able to compete with them on a level playing field. It’d be a bit like the startup world, where venture-backed entrepreneurs routinely take on entrenched incumbents.

Quick Takes

Voter turnout in the Louisiana U.S. Senate runoff on December 10th was just 29.2 percent--down from 67.8 percent in the general election--making it one of the lowest-attended U.S. Senate elections in the state in recent years. Legislators should look for ways to expand the use of ranked choice voting to avoid costly, low-turnout elections like the one on December 10th.

Nearly two weeks after it started, Wisconsin’s presidential recount is complete. The recount, which was requested by Green Party presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein and independent candidate Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente ahead of Wisconsin’s November 25th filing deadline, yielded a small vote gain (131 votes of the nearly 2.8 million cast) for president-elect Donald Trump.